Saturday, April 4, 2009

Where Do the Missoula Marathon Registration Fees Go?

Those of us associated with the Missoula Marathon are often asked about the registration fee and "where the money goes." I got asked again the other day, and decided to post my reply.

The Missoula Marathon has many causes that it supports. First and foremost, the Missoula Marathon is put on by Run Wild Missoula, the local non-profit 501(c)3 running club, and it is a fundraiser for that organization. The mission statement for Run Wild Missoula is to support walking and running for all ages and abilities, and the Missoula Marathon helps fund much of those efforts. Run Wild Missoula puts on many events for the community where we break even or lose money, and we also create events that are fundraisers for other non-profit organizations. The running club also does community projects, such as posting mile markers along running trails in Missoula. Run Wild Missoula also donates money to Missoula Youth Track, another non-profit organization, and other running related causes such as the Boston Training Group.

Additionally, the Missoula Marathon gives a percentage of the profits back to non-profit organizations that help us out on race day, including HARC the ham radio operators, Red Cross of Montana, Camp Mak-a-Dream and Opportunity Resources. Above and beyond that, we supported Missoula Youth Homes in their efforts to utilize our event as a fundraiser for their non-profit organization. They raised $40,000 last year and are excited about improving upon that this year. We encourage other non-profit organizations to do similar activities with our event.

We are only going into our third year and we have been very relieved and proud that our event has been able to cover its costs and have enough to get us going again the following year. A lot of this is because of the tremendous support this event receives community wide, as it is viewed as a community event -- not a running club event.

When you run the Missoula Marathon, please feel good about everything in this community to which you have just contributed.